Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Eileen Hull has done it again! Her nifty new Twist & Style Tool unleashes an avalanche of new crafty possibilities using wires, ribbon and other fibers. Most of the possibilities I've imagined remain in my head because of this:

Yes, those are most of our belongings packed expertly by my engineer husband into a POD because we are about two days away from moving! Needless to say, a large portion of my craft supplies are buried deep in there and art has taken a back seat to endless packing. Did I mention the endless part?? Anyway, I did create some twisty projects for CHA back in January so I can share those with you at least. Alas, new projects and detailed tutorials will have to come later.

Way back when, I found some cute decorative jars that were begging for alteration:

After I applied clear crackle paint to the jar and colored it with alcohol inks, I twisted lengths of silver wire and beads together using the Twist & Style Tool. I wrapped the wire around the jar and "captured" some snowflakes I had diecut out of plastic.

It looks so pretty with a candle in it!

I also made a Christmas themed jar and twisted mini jingle bells onto the wire trim.

It's easy to add beads or other objects to the materials you are going to twist with the tool. In this case, once I folded my length of wire in half and fastened it into the base, I threaded the bells onto both ends of the wire and distributed them all along the length. As I twisted the wire, the bells were incorporated into the twists:

Be sure to head on over to Eileen's blog to check out the first two posts of the month featuring this handy new tool. My Inspiration Teamies have been sharing fabulous projects all month long!

Well I can't wait to get back into full crafting mode but I'm not there yet (because I'm literally not there yet ha ha). Until next time…

Monday, August 1, 2016

Buy your tickets and pack your bags, 'cause we're going traveling with the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge blog! As you can see, our theme this month is 'Travel'. We are also pleased to have as Guest Designer Lindsay Weirich (The Frugal Crafter) joining us. She is giving away one spot in her new online Mixed Media Class as the challenge prize so be sure to join in this month!

On a personal note, our family has huge travel plans for August. We are moving from California to Idaho! That's a big deal for us, as both my husband and I grew up here in the Bay Area. Our roots are deep but this will be a good change for us. I will be looking forward to landing in our new home and getting to unpack all my art supplies. I think I am going through creative withdrawal. Painting walls in our house here just isn't the same. ;-) Due to limited time, I couldn't create an in depth tutorial for you this month, but I did make a little project to mark our big move:

I cut three Idaho shapes out of foam core board and glued them together. Roughly cutting out sections of an Idaho map, I used Glue 'n Seal to adhere them to the front and back of my foam core sandwhich and trimmed them at the edge with a craft knife. Then I "frosted" the raw edges with Texture Paste to make it look nice and neat. The base is cut from corrugated cardboard – a readily available and appropriate material around here at the moment!

The boxes are wooden blocks painted with Brushed Corduroy, distressed with archival Potting Soil ink and then covered with various Tim Holtz Remnant Rubs. Here's a back view:

I topped it all off with a photo of myself and my husband standing on our dirt patch. That was taken in May. It is much more than a dirt patch now with our house well under construction. It should be done mid September. It is all so exciting! I never ever imagined I would get to live in a brand new house. What a blessing.

Whether your travels are permanent, for vacation, or metaphorical, we would love to see your projects inspired by them. Hop on over to the blog to see the design team's inspiration and share your own. Enjoy the journey!

Sizzix

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